Senate approves abandoned-homes bill

Friday

May 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2008 at 11:16 AM

More than 4,100 vacant residential properties stain the landscape across Columbus, but city officials hope a bill passed by the Ohio Senate yesterday will help them get those buildings into the hands of new owners.

More than 4,100 vacant residential properties stain the landscape across Columbus, but city officials hope a bill passed by the Ohio Senate yesterday will help them get those buildings into the hands of new owners.

The bill was part of another active legislative day. But lawmakers aren't done yet. Leaders plan to return on June 10 to handle the new, $1.3 billion state construction budget and budget correction bill.

Yesterday, the House rejected Senate changes to the budget bill, forcing a joint conference committee to work out differences.

Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, hopes his Senate Bill 277 will help Columbus and other Ohio cities take swifter action on abandoned homes by giving officials the power to combine liens on public-nuisance properties so they can be forced into foreclosure.

The hope is that the properties can be sold at sheriff's auction to owners who will agree to take care of them.

"This bill will be helpful to urban centers that have these vacant properties that have been orphaned," said Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. "It's not a panacea. But it's one of those things that sure would be nice if we had the ability to do this."

Stivers said the bill could cut the average foreclosure process in half, from two years to one.

"It causes financial strain on the whole neighborhood, because when a property is vacant and ignored, the properties around it lose value as well," Stivers told his colleagues before a unanimous vote. The bill now moves to the House.

Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller, D-Columbus, called the bill "an excellent remedy to a major problem." He stressed his concern about the impact of vacant houses and the increased blight, crime and drugs they bring on neighbors who are making a legitimate effort to keep up their properties.

In other business, lawmakers approved bills that would:

• Crack down on the growing theft of metal products that are sold for scrap. The governor is expected to sign it.

• Impose a mandatory prison sentence for the crime of importuning -- the solicitation of sex from a minor -- if the offender has been convicted of a previous sexual offense or a child-related offense. The governor is expected to sign it.

• Attempt to stop so-called stranger-oriented life insurance schemes, in which seniors are persuaded to take out policies that, upon their deaths, benefit investors. The governor is expected to sign it.

• Limit the secretary of state's ability to issue permanent directives and make the Board of Voting Machine Examiners a bipartisan panel. The governor is expected to sign it.

In response to Wednesday's Senate debate about proposed election changes, Sen. John A. Carey Jr., R-Wellston, accused Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner yesterday of improperly using a study critical of touch-screen voting to push to discredit the systems used in 53 of the state's 88 counties.

Carey complained that before the Controlling Board approved $1.9 million for the study last year, Brunner promised that she would use the report to make touch-screens safer -- not to promote optically scanned paper ballots.

"In short, the report was a waste of money, and it is only being used as a tool to promote Secretary Brunner's agenda," Carey said.

A Brunner spokesman said Carey is entitled to his opinion but that the study has been hailed as a national model.

While many bills passed yesterday, the Great Lakes Compact washed out when House Democrats blocked passage of a related constitutional amendment that supporters said would ensure protection of property rights for underground water. Without the amendment, Senate GOP leaders refuse to pass the compact, an agreement among eight states and two Canadian provinces not to divert water outside the immediate region.